Bending at the waist, I breathed in deeply through my nose, releasing each breath as slowly as I was able. She wasn’t involved. Couldn’t be. She wasmy mother.
And she was in the hospital. Relief flooded me as I concluded she must have been one of Paul’s victims, as well.
Paul was talking. “…good. I’m relieved that the initial…confusion…was sorted out. The money is …case by the…Although, I’m not—”
Anger swamped the pain and confusion. Straightening, I pivoted and crashed through the office door. Panic flashed across Brodie’s face, but I barely registered him as I launched myself at the man behind the desk. The man who had paid to ensure my death. “You bastard!”
I raked my nails across his cheek, part of me noting its absolute pallor, before Brodie caught me and pulled me back across the width of the desk and off of him. He held me securely with an arm around my waist as I fought within his grasp. “Let go! Damn you, let me go! You asshole! You tried to have me killed? Monster!”
Paul half-stood before dropping back in his chair. He pointed a finger at me, eyes darting from me to the man who held me. “She was dead. You killed her. I saw it—” His hands fumbled at the phone and he played the video again, as if to prove to himself that he had seen what he remembered. “What the hell is going on?”
“Why, Paul?” I slumped to a stop, letting Brodie bear my weight. My limbs were too heavy all of a sudden, filled with grief and rage. “Why would you pay someone to kill me? What did I ever do to you?” I stopped, wondering how I’d ever thought we knew this man. He was a stranger. “How on earth did you even get involved with the fucking mob?”
“You stupid girl.” Paul stood, his legs bearing his weight this time. He gestured with his hand, waving it contemptuously before him. “I laundered some money for Donegal. And why does anyone do anything? Passion or money.”
Money, then. “You wanted my trust.” It was worth millions, established by my father when I was an infant. It was also out of reach unless I was declared incompetent or dead.
“And I’ll have it. You could have done this the easy way, married the man I chose for you—” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He showed no shame, no guilty conscience whatsoever.
“The one that was your age? Dear God, you were selling me.”
Paul sneered, hands on hips. “Of course, I was. You weren’t worth anything to me, if you couldn’t acquire connections, shore up agreements, or make me money.”
Behind me, I heard a low growl in Brodie’s throat. He was quiet otherwise, letting me say my piece. I didn’t even know how to respond. Paul was so nonchalant about it, as though it was no big deal to take a person’s life. Cold. I realized with a surge of relief that I had never done anything to warrant the chill I had felt since he had come into my life. I hadn’t been a terrible child. I hadn’t been unmanageable and unlovable. He was the broken one, so much so that he couldn’t even see his own vileness.
“And my mother? Are you responsible for the attack on her?”
An expression of annoyance twisted his features. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She overheard a conversation earlier that day between me and Carson.”
“So you made yourself conveniently scarce and gave Carson permission to do as he wished.”
“Stop acting so high and mighty.” His pale eyes flicked over my head to Brodie. “And you. Donegal will be hearing about this. In the meantime, I don’t think he’ll mind if I take matters into my own hands.”
In a move that was swifter and smoother than I ever would have predicted, Paul pulled a gun from beneath the surface of his desk and trained it on me. I laughed, closing my eyes briefly. I had to. What were the odds of being held at gunpoint twice in as many days? My life was taking some unusual turns.
“Actually, he would have problems with that.”
I turned to see Kael and the two men in suits in the doorway. As one shifted, I caught the glint of a badge at his waist.
“Kael!”
“Hullo, lass,” he said with a wink. He looked at Paul. “King is displeased, Paul. Seems you left some important information out.”
“What? What didn’t I tell him?”
Brodie pulled me behind him. “Put the gun down, Paul. None of us want to get this nice room bloody and you’re without options.”
Paul wavered, uncertain.
The two men with Kael stepped forward and motioned us back, both of them with weapons drawn. “Paul Coleman, you are under arrest for attempted murder, conspiracy to—”
The words faded away as Brodie pulled me further away and out of the room. I saw Paul dropping the gun to the desk and raising his hands in the air, then the suits stepping forward to pull his arms behind his back and place a set of cuffs on him.
It didn’t feel real. It was over. I felt the first tear fall as the extent of his betrayal hit, and the knowledge that I had lost two fathers, even if Paul had been a shitty one.
In the hall, Brodie’s arms came around me and he pressed my face into his chest. I curled my arms around him, clutching him to me and allowing him to hold me, feed comfort to me with his heartbeat against my cheek, but there were no more tears.
I wouldn’t cry for what I had lost again.
